DispositionMatrix
NES Member
Taking Gun Control to the People After Parkland
Do Something Florida! faces a difficult task. BAWN has approximately a year to collect 766,200 verified petition signatures, and then will need at least 60 percent of the vote in favor of the ban in a historically gun friendly state. On top of that, they’re sure to face organized opposition from gun-rights activists.
Third-degree felony for possession, and police would be exempt, of course.BAWN’s proposal defines assault weapons more broadly than past definitions. Instead of listing design features to designate the banned weapons, the question describes assault weapons as “semiautomatic rifles and shotguns capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition at once, either in a fixed or detachable magazine, or any other ammunition-feeding device.” This definition expands on several existing state laws by including weapons that can accept large-capacity detachable magazines, which typically make assault weapons so lethal.
While these may seem like minor details, the language was carefully chosen. BAWN hired John Mills, a former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives and the former dean of the University of Florida College of Law, to write the ballot proposal. Mills, who has authored many amendments to the Florida constitution, also worked extensively with gun policy experts from Everytown, the national gun control advocacy organization founded by Michael Bloomberg. Mills told me that they took care to phrase the question so that it did not include what most people would consider common hunting rifles. The ballot initiative also includes specific language committing to the Second Amendment, which may bolster the amendment’s chances in the event there is a legal challenge, which has been known to happen following previous gun control initiatives.